Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Incredible Woman #48 - Serene Heiner. Blogging and Trials...

KARA: "When did you start blogging? Tell us about your blog – what kinds of things do you write about? What is your favorite post of all time. Do you get many comments from readers? What do you like about blogging?"

SERENE: "I've been blogging for over two years now. I had originally started it when we were starving students a BYU, hoping to build a home business and make a little money on the side to help out. Then someone suggested I throw in some personal stuff. Pretty soon I was solely blogging about the craziness and messes that come with having little toddlers and babies, sometimes my feelings, sometimes just random posts about my opinions, desires, goals, etc. I'm afraid I can't boast of it being anything particularly special, I'm amazed people actually read it!

Favorite post of all time? Oh dear, out of 600 posts it would be hard to choose just one.

Not too long ago I wrote about a very average day in a very unique way, trying to preserve the memory of it. It's called,"Just another Day". And once, after a particularly bad week, I wrote a post called, "Did you ever get the feeling?" They still make me smile.

I average about 20 - 25 or so comments per post. Sometimes less, sometimes more. And like any blogger, I love comments. Though I confess with so many little ones at home, sometimes it's hard for me to keep up with everyone else's blogs, responding to comments, etc. I hope they forgive me!

I've really come to love blogging because first, it offered an outlet for me and a way to express, in humorous ways, the hard times we go through with our kids. I also discovered a love for writing and have made many wonderful friends."



KARA: "Talk about some of the trials you’ve had throughout your life – what helped you get through those trials? What kinds of lessons did you learn from your trials?"

SERENE: "Well, one that jumps right to mind would be when my baby girl Alayna had to have cranial reconstructive surgery last year at Primary Childrens.

She was born with a slightly funny head shape and by six months, it was only getting worse. So they did a CT scan and discovered she had something called "Sagittal Craniosynostosis".

In a nut shell, that means her top two head plates where fused together as one solid bone. So as her little brain was growing, it was pushing in the direction that would give, meaning forward and back. That explains the elongated head. But as her brain kept growing it would have eventually put pressure on the brain, causing lots of health problems and even possible brain damage.

The surgery was five hours. They cut her scalp in a big zig zag from ear to ear, removed all the head plates from her head, reconstructed them correctly, and put them back together with dis-solvable plates and screws.


It was pretty scary for us and really hard to see her have to go through that. But I had total faith in the Priesthood blessing she received from my husband where she was promised that she would be okay.



Not to mention Primary Childrens is a very humbling place. As scary as our situation was, it was cake compared to what others were going through. It helped us maintain perspective.

In the end, she did better than anyone could have expected. You are welcome to read the full story HERE.


One of the things Serene said in that last answer made me remember the time when our youngest son, Matthew, had to have plastic surgery on his eyelid at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. Serene said "It was cake compared to what others were going through". I agree. I remember being in the waiting room with Matthew before the surgery and playing with the little children who clearly had much more severe problems than Matthew. I remember feeling so grateful that Matthew's problem was small. Some trials really do help you to maintain perspective. Join us tomorrow, when we'll talk about Serene's love story and her artistic talents!

4 comments:

Larsen said...

Oh, boy. Serene makes everything seem like cake because she loves chocolate so much....

Her hardest stuff isn't cake at all.

I ♥ Serene!

Braden Bell said...

I came over from Serene's blog (I promise, I'm not a stalker). Great interview!

Jocelyn Christensen said...

Oh man, those last two pictures are amazing!

Michelle {Fun On a Dime} said...

I love Serene! She is really an amazing person in real life, too!

Post a Comment

 
Blog Design by April Showers for Incredible Women